The Doctor escapes from the Scope and joins forces with Vorg to try and save its inhabitants but Kalik is still determined to use the Drashigs to start a rebellion.The Doctor escapes from the Scope and joins forces with Vorg to try and save its inhabitants but Kalik is still determined to use the Drashigs to start a rebellion.The Doctor escapes from the Scope and joins forces with Vorg to try and save its inhabitants but Kalik is still determined to use the Drashigs to start a rebellion.
- Director
- Writers
- Robert Holmes
- Sydney Newman(uncredited)
- Donald Wilson(uncredited)
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- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn the lovely moment where Vorg speaks to the Doctor in 'Carni' (to test if he is of carnival origin) the actor speaks Polari, which is a real world form of slang. It is a mixture of pidgin Italian, rhyming slang, and Romany. Roughly translated, what he says is: "Do you speak Carni?" "Look at this beautiful girl." "There is no money round here, you understand."
- GoofsIn the close-up, Vorg's three-shell gambling game is clearly being played on a round piece of roughly cut corrugated cardboard, which has been sprayed silver to give it a much more futuristic appearance.
- Quotes
Pletrac: The function of this tribunal is to keep this planet clean. This Tellurian creature comes from outside our solar system and is a possible carrier of contagion. Furthermore the creature may be hostile.
The Doctor: Would you kindly stop referring to me as "the creature", sir. Or I may well become exceedingly hostile!
The ideas for this story are very good with plenty of interesting and exciting elements. It is not always fully successful in presenting these ideas so is not one of the greatest serials but it is great fun and very good. All 4 episodes are very satisfactory but could have been greater with a little more cleverness in the presentation. Even with the imperfections in execution this is still good quality and a lot of fun.
The effects are not great but I do not judge that too harshly as it was OK for the day. The costumes, make-up and sets/equipment is more problematic to me, it is like a premonition of the mid 80s serials with these gaudy, over the top and unimpressive elements but the story, script and acting are all strong enough which is the main thing and overcomes visual shortcomings.
The story involves The Doctor having been given back his power to travel through space and time unhindered by the Time Lords. He and Jo then find the TARDIS has landed aboard the S.S. Bernice, an early 20th Century ship but finding that events keep repeating in a loop. Meanwhile we see a pair of travelling entertainers arriving on a distant planet in the future where they encounter a hostile reception from the ruling class of alien beings. These two seemingly unconnected story lines are revealed to be very much linked.
The interest of the two apparently unrelated story lines and the mysterious repeating of events aboard the ship are a great idea and the script is very good. The first episode is the best in my opinion as this mystery element is great. The appearance and actions of the travelling entertainers is a bit over the top and a slight let down for me as are some of the design aspects throughout the story. The alien beings two classes both look pretty unconvincing and also provide a strangely unresolved moral element as the seemingly cruel oppression of the servant beings is inexplicably ignored. These faults stop the adventure from reaching its potential but there is still good material to make it a very decent, enjoyable story overall. There is lots of nice dialogue, interesting characters, Pertwee and Manning in great form as The Doctor and Jo and a story which is good.
My ratings: Part 1 - 8.5/10, Part 2 - 8/10, Part 3 - 7.5/10, Part 4 - 8/10. Overall - 8/10.
- A_Kind_Of_CineMagic
- Oct 15, 2014
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